June 24 (Bloomberg) -- Israeli officials are meeting with
American counterparts to urge them not to let Iran benefit from
the battlefield successes of an al-Qaeda offshoot in Iraq, an
aide in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.

The aide provided no details and spoke yesterday by phone
on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential diplomacy.

In his first public remarks on developments in Iraq,
Netanyahu underscored Israel’s concern that the U.S. might
soften its stance on the Iranian nuclear program to seek Shiite
Iran’s cooperation in rolling back gains of Sunni Muslim
insurgents in Iraq.

“When your enemies are fighting each other, don’t
strengthen either one of them. Weaken both,” Netanyahu said
June 22 on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. “I think by far
the worst outcome that could come out of this is that one of
these factions, Iran, would come out with nuclear weapons
capability. That would be a tragic mistake.”

Israel has urged the U.S. and its allies to keep pressuring
Iran with sanctions until it agrees to end any nuclear
enrichment, a process that has both civilian and military
applications. Iran and world powers are trying to reach a final
nuclear deal by July 20, and are due to meet again in Vienna
next week. The Iranian government denies it seeks to produce
atomic weapons.

‘Open to Discussions’

Secretary of State John Kerry, who flew to Baghdad
yesterday to consult with Iraqi leaders, said this month the
U.S. “is open to discussions if there’s something constructive
that can be contributed by Iran.” Iran has deployed units from
its elite Revolutionary Guard Forces to Iraq to join the fight
against the rebel Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, the BBC
reported this month.

Moshe Maoz, professor emeritus of Middle East Studies at
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, takes issue with Netanyahu’s
focus on possible gains for Iran.

“The military intelligence sources I know look at the ISIL
as a crucial threat to the whole region, including Israel, with
its success encouraging jihadist and al-Qaeda groups, including
those facing us on the Syrian border,” Maoz said.

Israel should understand the tough decisions the U.S. faces
in Iraq, “where the choice seems to be between cholera and the
plague,” he said.

Crossings Captured

Recent ISIL gains include the capture of the Traibil
crossing point with Jordan and the Al-Waleed entry into Syria,
according to Hameed Ahmed Hashim, a member of the provincial
council in the Iraqi province of Anbar near the frontier. He
denied reports on state-run Iraqiya television that the army had
retaken the positions.

While any destabilization of neighboring Jordan would be
another potential source of concern, former Israeli military
intelligence officer Mordechai Kedar says that threat can be
contained.

“It is doubtful that the ISIL could ever run a state, or
pose a real strategic threat to any stable state that it is
actually functioning as such, be it Jordan or Israel,” he said.

ISIL shares a radical Sunni Islamic theology with other
militant groups already in direct conflict with Israel,
including Salafist cells in the Gaza Strip and Egypt’s Sinai
Peninsula that Israeli officials say have launched rockets and
staged cross-border attacks on Israel. Israel also suspects that
al-Qaeda-linked groups among the rebels fighting in Syria have
taken part in recent attacks on Israel’s northern frontier.

ISIL Target

“Israel is one of the ISIL’s targets, no doubt about it,”
said Kedar, now a lecturer in Arabic studies at Bar-Ilan
University in Ramat Gan, Israel. “They talk about this clearly
and explicitly, and we have to take their threats seriously.”

While the dangers of spillover from the ISIL success and
the growing regional instability are serious, they aren’t the
main threats, said Gerald Steinberg, a political science
professor at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan. “An American-Iranian alliance against ISIL, as long as Iran pursues nuclear
weapons, is perceived as far more dangerous.”